Much of What Counts for Expertise is Just Caring More Than Others
The simple shortcut to being better
Expertise is often just a fancy word for caring 10% more than the person next to you. We mistake “genius” for what is actually a relentless obsession with the details everyone else ignores.1
The Anatomy of Caring
In our trade, we love certifications.2 To this end, consider this: knowledge is reading the textbook, while expertise is being able to point out a mistake in it. Note that what’s interesting about this dynamic is that you don’t actually need to have read the textbook to be able to find a mistake. In fact, if all you know is the textbook, you’ll never spot the errors.
Enter caring. This “shortcut” to expertise is comprised of genuine, unscalable interest. This means being:
Endlessly curious about the topic/product/industry/question
Critically skeptical about received wisdom
Tirelessly empathetic with all stakeholders (employees, suppliers, customers, and consumers)
Examples from History
The Wright Brothers: While the Smithsonian-funded elite chased raw horsepower, two bike mechanics obsessed over the “unsexy” physics of lateral control. They didn’t have a bigger budget; they just cared more about how a wing actually turns.
Early Linux: It wasn’t built by a corporate mandate, but by developers who cared enough to troubleshoot kernels at 3:00 AM for free. Expertise was the byproduct of their stubbornness.
James Dyson: 5,127 failed prototypes. That wasn’t that he possessed some “spark of genius.” It was his refusal to stop caring about airflow friction.
The Beverage Reality
Here’s what this looks like in action for the:
Sales Rep: Caring enough to fix a broken draft line when the technician won’t show up. This entails first caring enough to know how to fix it, even if it isn’t part of your job description.
Buyer: Caring enough to dig into a producer’s soil health instead of just checking a “90-point” box.
Portfolio Manager: Caring about the long-term “fit” and health of the book, rather than just filling a spreadsheet with “me-too” SKUs.
Start-up Founder: Obsessing over the “why” behind every single door, rather than just the “how many” on a depletion report.
If you want to be the expert, start by being the person who gives a damn, or at least much more than the competition. The rest will come with time.
Experience counts for something, too. It’s most useful for pattern recognition, where a large sample set might reveal information that a “newbie” wouldn’t be able to identify. Of course, that experience is only worth something if you care enough to turn it into something valuable.
On this count, I’m guilt as charged.